Jean Elizabeth Heying Rusmore was born 13 Sept 1920, Anaheim, CA. and died on 1 April 2022, in Aptos, CA, at 101 and a half years. Jean will be remembered for her dedication and leadership in Bay Area conservation organizations, and authorship of hiking guides to the Bay Area.
A long-time resident of Ladera (Portola Valley, CA), Jean was a person of wide-ranging interests, guided by her love for other people, nature, and this fascinating world. She contributed to her local neighborhood, community and to the larger world through hiking, writing, advocating for the environment, and by her kindness, generosity and acceptance of everyone she met from every country and background. Jean welcomed all to her home with her effervescent spirit, graciousness, and especially her warm smile.
Jean left this life peacefully, knowing that she was well-loved by her large family and the many friends whom she had loved so well. She was married for 56 years to Jay Theodore (Ted) Rusmore from 1942 till his death in 2004. Together they are survived by their six children and their families: Mary Lyn Rusmore Villaume of Portland, OR, Teri Rusmore Coppedge of Ashland, OR, Barbara Rusmore of Bozeman, MT, John Rusmore of Elk Grove, CA, Kaki Rusmore of Aptos, CA and Margi Rusmore of Los Angeles, CA, 13 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, as well as many nieces, nephews and their families.
Early Life:
Jean’s parents, Mary Grim Heying and Oscar Heying, raised four children in Anaheim, CA: Jean, the eldest, then Barbara, (Geoghan, deceased) John Heying, and Agnes (King, deceased). She attended local Catholic and public schools, helped out at her father’s drugstore, and learned to swim and body surf in nearby Seal Beach, where the family vacationed at “Anaheim Landing.”
Education and Marriage:
In 1938 she rode the train from Anaheim to University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in physical education and minored in French, interests she pursued throughout her life. There Jean met Jay Theodore Ruschhaupt, “Ted,” a PhD psychology candidate from Fresno, whom she met in the International House where they both lived. He claimed she attracted his attention because she always had her hair combed when she came down to breakfast. On their first date, they played tennis, and she won. At their marriage in Anaheim on Sept 9, 1942, they both changed their surnames to Rusmore.
Family Life:
Jean and Ted had two daughters, Mary Lyn and Teri, while living in Berkeley, then moved to San Jose when Ted began his long career as a psychology professor at San José State College, later, University. In 1950 they moved to a new community, originally a cooperative, called Ladera, between Menlo Park and Portola Valley with their new baby, Barbara. There Jean was immersed in child-rearing with the arrivals of John, Kaki, and Margi. Jean made being a mother of six appear easy and graceful. She would later comment that “raising six children was no trouble at all, as long as you didn’t want to do anything else” and that “the first two were just for practice.” The family enjoyed camping, backpacking, tennis, beach-going and traveling. As the children traveled and lived abroad on their own, Jean and Ted visited them in such places as Mexico, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Egypt, as well as taking other trips to Europe, especially Jean's beloved France.
Community Involvement - local, regional, international:
Nonetheless she was actively involved in the new community. She and Ted hosted neighborhood Christmas piñata and caroling parties, with Jean at the piano, Ted on harmonica, and children and neighbors singing and playing other instruments.
She started a long-lived book club and a French conversation group. She loved music, especially classical, and enjoyed attending symphony concerts, the ballet, and theater productions.
Following their interests in other lands and peoples, the Rusmores helped refugee families and provided home-stays for international students at nearby Stanfrd. Jean was an active participant in Stanford’s English in Action conversational program for over 20 years. Many of the foreign students became lifelong friends, and some sent their children and friends to visit the Rusmores over the years.
Jean was a founder and director of the Ladera Recreation District, where swimming, tennis and other family activities were popular. Wanting to make cycling and walking safer for children, Jean and Artemis Ginston advocated for bike paths along busy Alpine Road, and she’s been dubbed the “mother of bikeways,” for her role in making bike paths more common. They lobbied first San Mateo County and eventually the entire state to allocate a portion of gas taxes to bikeways.
Let's go for a hike!
An avid hiker throughout her life, up to the last couple of years, she started a hiking group called the Walkie Talkies in the early 1970's that still meets monthly and heartily appreciates her cheerful guidance and welcoming spirit. Enjoy the wildflowers, but watch out for poison oak!
Jean was a co-founder of the Committee for Green Foothills, and she worked with other organizations such as the Sierra Club, Hidden Villa Ranch in Los Altos Hills, the Sempervirens Fund, and Mid-Peninsula Open Space District (POST).
Jean the Writer:
Through her involvement in these groups, Jean realized that many Bay Area residents were unaware of the growing amount of open space and parklands available to them, and she knew that people tend to support spaces they know and love.
To help this cause, from 1982 to 2008, as her children her children were growing up and leaving home, Jean and her friends and co-authors Frances Spangle and Betsy Crowder researched and hiked miles and miles of trails - more than once - and wrote hiking guidebooks, published by Wilderness Press. These books, Peninsula Trails and South Bay Trails, and Jean’s first three editions of the guide to the Bay Area Ridge Trail, led to her becoming Author of the Year at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, outselling even Stephen King and the Bible one year. All three books have had many updates and printings and continue to be popular.
Later life:
After her husband Ted’s death in 2004, Jean moved the following year to the retirement residence then known as the Classic Residence by Hyatt, now called The Vi, in Palo Alto. There she immediately made new friends while still remaining close to older ones in the area. In 2015, as dementia began to affect her well-being, she moved to Aegis at Aptos where she lived until her death and was happy to call her home. This location allowed her family to visit her often, as they could stay at the much-expanded cabin in Aptos built by Ted’s parents in 1936. The family has enjoyed it for vacations and refuge over the years
Remembering Jean:
To honor Jean’s memory, the family suggests hiking a trail, contributing to a park or environmental organization, and/or sharing some vanilla ice cream with friends.
